clean cooking stoves

CLEAN COOKSTOVES

According to the World Health Organisation, smoke from open fires and basic cookstoves contributes to the deaths of more than four million people every year. A unique collaboration with the UN and a range of public and privatepartners is now working to help provide millions with a cleaner, safer way of cooking.

Cooking on open fires can expose people to harmful fumes.

A breath of fresh air

Many of the world’s poorest people across Africa, Asia and Latin America are exposed to fumes from cooking inside their homes with fuels such as wood, animal dung or charcoal. Searching for these fuels uses up valuable time which could be better spent earning a living or attending school.

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is a unique initiative working to foster a self-sufficient global industry for clean and efficient stoves for cooking and heating. It also aims to raise awareness of the ways these stoves can significantly reduce fuel use, cooking time and emissions, and provide health benefits.

Shell is committing $12 million to help reach the goal of clean cookstoves in 100 million homes by 2020.

The Shell Foundation, an independent charity set up to tackle global development challenges, joined with Envirofit International to design and produce cleaner-burning stoves that are more affordable to those most at risk from indoor pollution. The Envirofit stove is robust and highly-efficient. It helps to cut smoke and harmful gases significantly compared to traditional cooking fires.

Envirofit have found that their stoves can cut cooking times by at least half, reduce smoke and toxic emissions by up to 80% and use up to 60% less fuel than traditional stoves. This allows many users to cover the cost of the stove – typically between $15 and $30 – within a few months through the fuel they save.

The Global Alliance

The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves demonstrates how collaboration across sectors can help bring modern energy solutions to the developing world. The Alliance has 1,300 diverse partners from around the world including national and multilateral partners, UN agencies, non-governmental organisations, investors, foundations, academic institutions, entrepreneurs, trade associations, and women’s co-operatives. Shell continues its support for the Alliance to encourage the widespread adoption of cleaner, safer cooking methods.